The Medium

The Medium is a horror title built around fixed camera angles and a split-screen mechanic that renders two worlds simultaneously, which places an unusual load on both the CPU and GPU. This analysis examines the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, a combination that ranks near the bottom of the tested pool for this specific game. The data shows a system that struggles to maintain playable frame rates at any resolution above 1080p, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck across all settings. The following sections break down the measured performance, the role of each component, and what the numbers indicate about this pairing's suitability for The Medium.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with the GTX 1650 holds a combo rank of 2817 out of 2911 tested combinations for The Medium. That places this system in the 3rd percentile of all tested combos, meaning roughly 97% of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher average frame rates in this game. The data is unambiguous: this is a bottom-tier configuration for this title, and the measured FPS values confirm that ranking across every resolution and settings preset.

The CPU itself, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225, is not the weak link in the broader sense. Its average benchmark score of 36938 places it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, which is a strong result for a desktop processor. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F with an average score of 36945 (a delta of 0%), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D at 37018 (delta -0.2%), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 at 37093 (delta -0.4%), and the Intel Core i9-12900T at 37112 (delta -0.5%). These deltas are all within half a percent, indicating that the Ultra 5 225 performs essentially on par with those chips in synthetic benchmarks. Yet, in The Medium, the combo rank is dragged down almost entirely by the GPU, which sits at the 40th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 7472.

The contrast is stark. A top-quartile CPU paired with a bottom-half GPU yields a combo that is nearly last place in this game. The benchmark results indicate that the GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are simply not enough for The Medium's dual-render technique, which requires drawing the same scene twice from different camera angles. The combo rank of 2817 out of 2911 is a direct consequence of this GPU limitation, not a reflection of CPU processing power. For context, the GTX 1650's nearest GPU rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 8850M (avg score 7447, delta 0.3%), Intel UHD Graphics 750 (7441, delta 0.4%), AMD Radeon R7 350 (7425, delta 0.6%), and Intel Arc A310 (7550, delta -1%). These are all low-end or integrated graphics solutions, confirming the GTX 1650's position in the lower tier of discrete GPUs.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is a Turing-architecture GPU built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, featuring 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. Its memory configuration is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock runs at 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and the memory operates at 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective). These specifications yield a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s, and an FP32 performance of 2.984 TFLOPS. The card has a TDP of 75 W, requires no power connectors, and is a dual-slot design measuring 229 mm in length.

In The Medium, these specs translate to severe performance constraints. The game's split-screen presentation effectively doubles the rendering workload, and the GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM is a critical limitation. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 44 FPS, which is the only setting across all resolutions where the frame rate approaches playable territory. Moving to Medium settings at 1080p drops the average to 27 FPS, with a minimum of 23 FPS and maximum of 31 FPS. High settings yield 20 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 16 FPS average. These numbers show that the GPU is overwhelmed by the game's rendering demands, particularly as texture quality and shadow details increase.

The GTX 1650's FP32 throughput of 2.984 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, and the 128-bit memory bus limits effective bandwidth for large texture loads. The Medium's dual-world rendering means that every frame requires geometry and texture fetches for two camera views, which quickly saturates the 128.1 GB/s bandwidth. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is also a concern; at higher settings, the game likely exceeds this limit, causing texture swapping that further degrades frame rates. The measured FPS data supports this: from Low to Ultra at any resolution, the average FPS drops by roughly half or more, indicating that the GPU's compute and memory resources are exhausted as settings increase.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. This scaling reveals that the GTX 1650 is the limiting component, not the CPU, because the frame rate drops are consistent with GPU-bound workloads. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 44. At 1440p Low, it falls to 37, a reduction of 7 FPS or about 16%. At 4K Low, it drops to 29, which is a further 22% reduction from 1440p. These are significant losses, but they are not as steep as the settings-based drops, suggesting that resolution scaling is somewhat mitigated by the game's fixed camera angles.

For Medium settings, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute numbers. At 1080p Medium, the average is 27 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 23 FPS. At 4K Medium, it falls to 18 FPS. The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium is 23, at 1440p Medium it is 20, and at 4K Medium it is 15. The maximum FPS follows the same trend: 31 at 1080p, 26 at 1440p, and 21 at 4K. These figures indicate that the frame rate drops by roughly 4-5 FPS for each resolution step at Medium settings, which is a linear degradation typical of a GPU that is already near its performance ceiling.

At High settings, the scaling becomes even more pronounced. 1080p High averages 20 FPS, 1440p High averages 16 FPS, and 4K High averages 13 FPS. This represents a 20% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and another 19% drop from 1440p to 4K. Ultra settings are the worst: 1080p Ultra averages 16 FPS, 1440p Ultra averages 13 FPS, and 4K Ultra averages 10 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings results in a 37.5% reduction in average FPS, from 16 to 10. This steep decline confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the CPU's performance is largely independent of resolution.

The limiting component is clearly the GTX 1650. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has a boost clock of 4.90 GHz and 10 cores, which is more than sufficient for The Medium's CPU demands. The fact that FPS scales almost linearly with resolution, while settings changes have a similar impact, points to the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth being saturated. At 4K, even Low settings only produce 29 FPS average, which is below the 30 FPS threshold often considered minimal for playability. The data shows that this combo is only viable at 1080p with Low settings, and even there, the 44 FPS average may suffer during intense scenes with multiple on-screen entities.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings for this combo in The Medium?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 1080p with Low settings provides the highest average frame rate at 44 FPS. This is the only configuration that exceeds 40 FPS. Medium settings at 1080p average 27 FPS, which is playable but not smooth, while High and Ultra at 1080p average 20 and 16 FPS respectively, which are below comfortable playability thresholds.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with GTX 1650 ranks 2817 out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the bottom 3% of all pairings. The CPU alone ranks at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, but the GPU ranks at the 40th percentile, and the combination is severely limited by the graphics card.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has 10 cores and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, which provides strong compute performance. The GTX 1650, with its 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth, cannot keep up with The Medium's dual-render requirement. This is evident from the resolution scaling, where frame rates drop consistently as resolution increases, a classic sign of GPU limitation.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 23. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 20. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 15. These minimums indicate that even at Medium settings, there are moments where frame rates dip significantly, which can cause stuttering in a horror game where smooth camera movement is important.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GTX 1650 has an average benchmark score of 7472. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 8850M at 7447 (delta 0.3%), Intel UHD Graphics 750 at 7441 (delta 0.4%), AMD Radeon R7 350 at 7425 (delta 0.6%), and Intel Arc A310 at 7550 (delta -1%). These deltas are all within 1%, meaning the GTX 1650 performs nearly identically to these low-end or integrated GPUs in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at any settings?

A: No. The highest measured average FPS is 44 at 1080p Low. All other settings and resolutions produce averages below 40 FPS. The data shows no configuration where this combo reaches 60 FPS, and the hardware specifications support this, as the GTX 1650's FP32 performance of 2.984 TFLOPS is insufficient for The Medium's demanding rendering.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo covers four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) across three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160). All values are average FPS unless otherwise noted, with minimum and maximum values provided for Medium settings.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: 44 FPS average
• Medium: 27 FPS average, with a minimum of 23 FPS and maximum of 31 FPS
• High: 20 FPS average
• Ultra: 16 FPS average

At 2560x1440, the results are:

• Low: 37 FPS average
• Medium: 23 FPS average, with a minimum of 20 FPS and maximum of 26 FPS
• High: 16 FPS average
• Ultra: 13 FPS average

At 3840x2160, the results are:

• Low: 29 FPS average
• Medium: 18 FPS average, with a minimum of 15 FPS and maximum of 21 FPS
• High: 13 FPS average
• Ultra: 10 FPS average

The Medium settings are the only ones with min/max data, and they show that the frame rate variance is relatively tight. At 1080p Medium, the difference between minimum and maximum is 8 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it is 6 FPS. At 4K Medium, it is also 6 FPS. This consistency suggests that the GPU is running at a stable load, but the overall performance is too low for a smooth experience. The lack of min/max data for other settings does not imply stability; rather, the average FPS values for High and Ultra are already so low that any dips would be below playability.

The data shows a clear trend: for every resolution, Low settings provide roughly double the average FPS of Ultra settings. At 1080p, Low averages 44 FPS versus 16 FPS for Ultra, a 175% increase. At 1440p, Low averages 37 FPS versus 13 FPS for Ultra, a 185% increase. At 4K, Low averages 29 FPS versus 10 FPS for Ultra, a 190% increase. This consistent ratio indicates that the game's Ultra preset introduces rendering features that heavily tax the GTX 1650, likely including higher resolution textures and more complex lighting, which the 4 GB VRAM cannot accommodate efficiently.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a desktop processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on Arrow Lake architecture with a 3 nm process node at TSMC. It has 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The CPU has a TDP of 65 W, uses the Intel Socket 1851, and supports PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes. Its integrated graphics are Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 16EU, and it was released on January 6, 2025, with a launch MSRP of $246.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ultra 5 225 shows strong performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 25891, and single-core is 3655. The Cinebench R20 scores are 6317 multicore and 891 single-core, while Cinebench R15 scores are 2609 multicore and 368 single-core. PassMark results include a multithread score of 30459, a single-thread score of 4412, and a physics score of 2342. Other PassMark tests show integer math at 65345, floating point math at 92038, data compression at 302811, data encryption at 22285, extended instructions at 27162, find prime numbers at 358, and random string sorting at 36590. The average benchmark score is 36938, with a percentile ranking of 85 among all CPUs.

For The Medium, the CPU's role is less critical than the GPU's, but it still matters for maintaining frame pacing. The game's fixed camera angles and split-screen rendering require the CPU to manage two viewports, which involves additional draw call processing and object culling. The Ultra 5 225's 10 cores and 4.90 GHz boost clock are more than adequate for this task, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates drop consistently with resolution increases rather than showing CPU-related stutters. The benchmark results indicate that this CPU performs on par with rivals like the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (delta 0%) and the Intel Core i9-12900T (delta -0.5%), all of which are capable processors for gaming.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and DDR5 support ensure that data can be fed to the GPU without creating a bottleneck. However, the GPU's 128.1 GB/s bandwidth is only slightly higher, and the GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM is the more significant constraint. In The Medium, the CPU is essentially waiting on the GPU to render frames, which is why the combo rank is so low. The data shows that upgrading the CPU alone would not improve performance in this game; the GPU must be replaced to achieve higher frame rates. The Ultra 5 225 is a capable processor for modern games, but this pairing is fundamentally limited by its graphics card, and the benchmark results reflect that imbalance.